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Trtt IKIWEEKLY JOURANL
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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURN AL, Atlanta. Ga.
jihuj
- ••>-'■ Alas, for Piracy!
w rSRILY it ciems that the modern world
\Zr,floes move in unromantic groove. Even
that unlawful but picturesque
pursuit of a century or two ago, where it
crops up in these prosy times is shorn of the
glamour that once made it so alluring to
shmll boys and to some of their ildei J who re-
Joice in vicarious crime.
The dispatches tell us that the Soviet
schooner Alaska, with a Bolshevist crew and
the Bolshevist fla, flying at its mast-head, has
arrived in Seattle with the tale of a pirate
ship encountered on the deep seas, of coast
wise raids by the buccaneers, of murder,
plunder and hair-breadth escapes.
Time was when such a description would
have conjured of visions of a south sea isle,
waving palm trees, scorching skies and a low
lying black barque at anchor in a secret cove,
while ruffians clad in nought Lut pantaloons
and high boots, c.imson handkerchiefs about
their brows, cut asses and pistols, reveled in
rum on the beach, in the midst of their bars
of gold and silver.
Bpt the twentieth century pirate belies
this description. He was seen—in the shad
in ow,p£a glacier in Bering Sea. His raids
v were— on the coast cit.es of Alaska and Si
beria. And the thing he stole was—coal!
-What a colla.pse have we here in all the
best traditions of piracy Assuredly Captain
Kidd and Blackbeard would turn over in
their graves at the knowledge ot it. Kidd
could never have buried his doubloons in an
iceberg, and even the ferocious Blackbeard
have hesitated at walking a victim off
•* UEtTplank into the icy waters of the Arctic.
Perhaps their degenerate descendants find hot
noggins of rum most warming in their chilly
clime. They may even follow, as a practice
to inspire comfort as well as fear, Black
beard’s habit of firing the ends of his mous
tache. But if ever they Jiope to go down in
volumes that wi 1 -(reserve their fame, to the
boys of posterity, they will do well to change
the scene of their activities to a tropical
and more romantic setting, and to plunder
something else than a coal-yard.
■ x-::
A Population of 427,679,214
THIS was census taking year in China
as well as in the United States. Ac
cording to the figures given out at
Pekin, the Celestial Empire—or must we
now say Celestial Republic?—exceeds us in
population almost as we exceed the greatest
of our Latin-American neighbors. Four hun
dred and twenty-seven million six hundred
and seventy-nine thousand two hundred and
fourteen inhabitants dwell in the Chinese
homeland —a number unparalleled or un
appxbached by any other nationality.
Westerners have been wont to regard China’s
census as heightened and colored by Oriental
Imagination. Her manner of enumerating is
so unique that a malapert American official
described it not long ago as exhibiting “com
plete" ignorance of the methods now nearly
universally employed ” albeit he was con
strained to admit that they did “throw con
siderable light on the question of popula
tion.” Whereupon a Pekin scholar quietly
remarked that “they nad discarded a system
even then better than ours.” Interestingly
enough, a comparison of the latest census
with counts made tea years ago by two dif
ferent branches of the Government in China
appear to indicate that the present reckoning
is riot extravagant.
But suppose we reduce it by hundreds of
thousands, suppose we reduce it by a mil
lion. Still the of the Chinese popu
lation stands as one of the outlooming facts
in the life and commerce of the world. What
markets will open and expand as those mil
lions of people develop tastes and needs for
the products of the civilization into which
they are more and more extensively enter
ing? And what a power for stability and
goofl\they will prove if to their native in
tegrity is added the leaven of Christian
ideals f
•W A ' • W
Moultrie Looks Ahead
TRUE to its progressive • record, Moul
, trie is taking stock of the coming
year’s opportunities and purposing to
malTe the most of them. Particularly nota
ble Is the movement of its business and
civic .leaders to encourage building. Ac
| corSing to The Journal’s correspondent, at
| least two hundred moderate-priced houses
I ere needed there and be prospect is that all
r could be sold or leased by the time they could
be finished. Seeing that the prices of ma
terials and other important factors will be
favorable to construction work after the
holidays, Moultrie capital expresses itself as
ready to aid such enterprises “in so far as is
consistent with sound banking principles.”
This is the spirit th?* makes communities
and commonwealths truly prosperous. A
year or so hence many persons and many
towns will look back to the season of more
dr less anxious waiting in which we now are
involved and will see all manner of fertile
opportunities. But the wise and the fortu
nate they who discern those opportuni
ties while they are available and grasp them,
It may take faith and courage to do so, but
nothing worth while is ever done without
courage and faith. Every town in Georgia
has some field of development to which it
can profitably turn its energies in the new
. year.
THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL.
More Effective for Peace
Than Reducing Armaments
MUCH interesting comment, some of it
gently satirical, has been called
forth by the suggestion at the Ge
neva meeting of the League of Nations that
henceforth the manufacture of munitions and
engines of war be taken- out of the hands of
private interests and confined to Government
plants. The author of the idea argues for
its adoption mainly upon the ground that
thus the equipment of the filibustering ex
peditions would be prevented, since only the
economically established nations could af
ford the cost of manufacturing their weapons.
The consequence, he thinks, would be to
spare the world many a petty revolution and
minor war, and thereby keep down the
sparks from which, sometimes, vast confla
grations come.
This, however, is not the most cogent rea
son that can be mustered for the Geneva sug
gestion. That ever resourceful correspond
ent, Mr. William Ivy, who writes, from Paris,
The Journal’s “European News and Views,”
doubts that inability to procure guns and
munitions would in itself keep the little,
local wu.r-makers quiet; they will fight just
as lustily, he imagines, with knives or even
with stone hatchetd. But, he adds, “the big
point, thus far overlooked, is that if all ar
maments are henceforth manufactured by
governments it will Sake months to get the
necessary papers signed authorizing the load
ing of a carload of shells, and when the
shells are finally ready they will either not
fit the gun or else they will fail to explode.
If Europe, in order to have another war,
had to wait until three or four leading gov
ernments with their respective bureaucracies
got the material made in government work
shops, the war would be so long postponed
that very likely the causes of it would have
disappeared.”
Giant munition makers like the Krupps
have been blamed not infrequently for the
belligerent attitudes of their respective na
tions, and even have been accused of con
spiring to precipitate great conflicts. But
it is easier to suspect such evil than to prove
it. Armament plants, whether privately or
publicly owned, are symptoms of national
and international states of mind—fear, jeal
ousy, ambition, hate; or, it may be, simple
prudence. In any case; it is vastly more
important to promote good understanding
and good will among nations than merely to
prescribe reduced proportions and new terms
of ownership.for their gun and powder fac
tories, The latter will take care of itself if
the former is duly minded—though by no
means should the indirect helpfulness of gen
eral reduction of armament be minimized.
The worst enemies of peace today are those
who endeavor to kindle distrust or hatred of
one people against another, and those who
sneer. at honest efforts for international
friendship and co-working.
Hancock County s Wise Step
HANCOCK county is highly fortunate in
having «> Faim Bureau that sees
oncoming needs and prepares to meet
them. That organization has voted unani
mously to establish at Sparta, the county
seat, a market for butter, eggs, poultry and
other food products from the farms of the
adjacent territory, and also to build a large
sweet potato curing plant in time to care
for next season’s crop. These steps are to be
taken in order that farmers who produce
commodities other than cotton may not lack
adequate means of converting them into co
at fair prices, or x storing them until gen
eral 'conditions are favorable for selling.
No more useful or more seasonable lin:
of service can be undertaken by those seek
ing to conserve and promote Georgia’s
prosperity for the coming twelvemonth.
Never was it more needful that facilities be
provided for the profitable marketing of
food crops. Unless all present omens fail,
the year 1921 will witness a marked reduc
“tion in the cotton acreage; hundreds of
planters will be compelled to adopt that
policy, and hundreds will do so from choice.
It may oe expected, then, that a vast deal
of new energy will be given to raising food
crops and food animals—a procedure that
will redound to the State’s richest welfare,
provided there are ample accommodations
for handling these products when they are
ready to be sold.
The Hancock County Farm Bureau, like
other forward-thinking organizations of its
purpose, is preparing for those harvest days
betimes. The result will be not only to en
courage food production but also to stimu
late business and to speed the coming of a
stable, well rounded prosperity.
IF ABILITY IS IN YOU, GET IT
OUT
BY JOHN BLAKE
The young man looks at his more suc
cessful fellows, and wonders why they suc
ceed.
“I have more ability than they have,” he
tells himself. “Yet they are drawing good
salaries, and I have hard work to hold a
job. This is a mighty unfair world.”
It very often happens that this contention
is perfectly true. Often men of very con
siderable ability fail where those with less
ability succeed.
But they fail because they do not use
their great ability at all, while the others
use their little ability to the very limit.
There are many actors and writers, and
painters of small ability who become real
successes, merely because recognizing that
their talent is not great they determine to
make the best use of it.
They are envied and hated by men of
more ability, who think the mere posses
sion of ability ought to count. But the pos
session of ability ill no more make a man
ccessful than the presence of gold in
quartz will make the quartz saleable. The
quartz must be milled to get out the gold.
The human quartz must be worked to get
the ability where it is available.
If you thing you have ability, you have
ten times as much incentive for hard work
as the man who hasn’t any. A rich mine
is certainly better worth working than a
mine that contains nothing but low grade
ore.
The people who have made themstlves
the great figures in the world are people
who have not only had talent, but the in
dustry to develop their talent.
If you have any ability in you, get it out.
Bring it to the' surface where others can
see it. Use it for the benefit of others.
Until you do chat, you can never con
vince them that you have it. The way to
find out whether you have ability or not
is to look for it. Find out what you like to
n. and try to do it; It won’t be easy at
first, but it will come easier as you go along.
Then if you find that there are some things
you can do better than others, put in all
your time and all your effort doing them.
Make every atom of talent count. Many
men who their friends believed to be very
ordinary, by sheer hard work have put them
selves high in the ranks of the useful and
successful people in the country. Don’t be
jealous of them. Don’t think it is luck that
has raised them while it has kept you
Imitate them. Get your own ability out
of hiding, if it is there. Use it, and you
will prosper, too. And even if you find
you have no special ability, you will have
lost nothing. For even mediocrity which is
industrious and ambitious will get a man a
pretty good rating in this world.
(Copyright, 1920, by John Blake.)
YOUR GROUCHINESS ’
By H. Addington Bruce
FIGURE ft out, brother.
Everybody is crooked. Every man
has his price. Graft and grab are the
great determining principles of life.
Business men, without exception, are prof
iteers. Workingmen, bar none, are lazy and
dishonest.
Nobody will tell the truth. Kindness and
sympathy are to be found nowhere. The
world is absolutely out of joint, the worst
of all possible worlds.
So you say. But —
Common sense tells you that you are ab
surdly foolish to talk this way. Your own
everyday experiences give the lie to this
crabbed, cynical attitude toward life and
your fellow man.
Figure it out.
The reason for your grouchiness is far
more likely to be found in yourself than in
the world around you. Nay, you must admit
that it is certain to b# found in yourself,
since most people living’'iri precisely the same
world have not a whit of a pessimistic sen
timents you habitually entertain.
Other people, you may protest, are more
fortunately situated than you. They are in
better health, for one thing. You are, in
deed, willing to conc&dc that the state of
your health may be the real cause of your
perpetually nursing a grouch.
You suffer much from dyspepsia. You have
frequent headaches. You tire easily. You
suspect that you may be a victim of eye
strain. And you know that teeth are
in pretty poor shade.
Well, then, go to a dentist, go to an ocu
list, and give a doctor a chance to help you
back to robust health. It is undoubtedly
easier to see life rosily when one is well
than when one is ill.
Only, brother
Just remember that thousands of people
in much poorer health than you display none
of the grouchiness in which you revel. There
must be at work, after all, some other, some
deeper, cause.
K Figure it out.
And perhaps it will help you to figure it
out if you ponder these words by an un
commonly keen observer of the ways of’men:
“Suppose the chronic grouch who is al
ways finding fault with everything and every
body should realize that he is only advertis
ing his own incompetence. See what a differ
ence it would make to him—how he would
restrain his complaints and have the energy
he would otherwise dissipatp available for
use on his job. __
“This would increase his efficiency, make
him more successful, and thus end the occa
sion for the grouch.”
Honestly, now, doesn’t this "explain your
own grouchiness?
Figure it out.
(Copyright, 1920, by The Associated News
papers.)
BLUE LAWS
By Dr. Frank Crane
The whole Blue Law talk arises from a
certain confusion of mind.
Unfortunately people think in terms of
mob mania.
The present flurry is due to the popular
misconception, on both sides, of Why Prohi
bition.
The Reformers think they brought it on,
which belief is also held by the Wets.
The Reformers flatter themselves, and the
Wets don’t understand.
Never in this world could a group of re
ligious enthusiasts either cow or cozen both
houses of congress and the legislatures of
two-thirds of the states into voting for some
thing they were sure their constituents did
not want. Such absurdity needs no arguing
The guilty parties who brought Prohibi
tion to pass are:
(1) The Scientists, who dug up the nasty
facts in the case, showing that the benefit
from alcohol was at best problematical ar
occasional, and the injury from it universal,
certain and appalling.
Os course alcohol got linked up with tra
dition, sentiment, joviality, and a lot of pre
cious companions, but Science is cruel, off
came the mask ind the disguised enemy
had to go.
(2) Life Insurance Companies. You could
not fool them. They had too much money
invested in the law of averages of human life.
They spoke only in statistics, but these were
eloquent.
(3) The Men of Business. After all Amer
ica is primarily a Business Institution. Booze
spoiled business. It honeycombed efficiency.
It crippled production. It made unrest and
agitation doubly dangerous. Bo one by one
great railway companies, manufacturing con
cerns and business houses lined up against it.
(4) The Women. Average, decent, hon
est and serious-minded American women
never liked the stuff.
(5) The War. When it came to concen
trating four million young men in camps and
getting them into shape to fight the best
trained enemy troops in the world, the booze
issue became acute. Things were too criti
cal to take any chances on not winning. Exit
booze. And we won.
And it was only because the gifted Re
formers had this tremendous platform to
stand on that they succeeded.
Os course, no such platform and prepara
tion exists in the case of Sunday laws, to
bacco and seven-up.
, They are harmful, compared to alcohol, as
a flea-bite is compared to a rattlesnake.
The Reverend Mr. Bowlby et al. will rattle
around a bit and then subside.
It is all brass band; they have no troops
(like the five regiments above mentioned)
behind them.
The U. S. A. is not going ahead into Puri
tanism.
Neither is it going back into Alcoholism.
The people—give ’em time —have sense.
(Copyright, 1920, by Frank Crane.)
WITH THE GEORGIA PRESS
BY JACK PATTERSON
“The Old Man Abroad”
An old farmer and his pretty young city
niece were watching the young people danc
ing.
“I bet- you never saw anything like this
back in the 90’s did you, Unkie?”
“Yep, once—but the place was raided.”—
Walton News.
Back to Normalcy
We are sure that a state of normalcy has
been reached. An ante-bellum colored friend
called around last week and asked for a suit
of old clothes.—Alpharetta Free Press.
This is a sure sign of returning sanity.
This Is Profiteering
See liquor quoted in Atlanta at forty dol
lars per gallon. There is certainly some
profiteering that the authorities should han
dle.—Oglethorpe Echo.
Considering the quality that is being hand
ed out by the dealers “Uncle” Shack is ab\
solutely correct.
Macon News Expands
On Tuesday. December 7th, the Macon
News, one of Georgia’s brightest and best aft
ernoon newspapers, will be changed from
seven to eight columns, this being in keeping
with the policy of many enterprising news
papers that are running eight columns slight
ly narrower than the seven-column stand
ard.
Around the World ,
Tri-Weekly News Flashes From All Over
the Earth.
Bombing Criminals
Ammonia gas bombs will be used by Chi
cago police to drive criminals into the open
vhen they barricade themselves in build
ngs, Chief of Police Fitzmorris announces.
The gas will be contained in regulation
jirmy hand grenades. Lead plugs will be
ised to cork up the grenades, and a four
nch fuse attached will melt the lead when
ighted and release the gas, according to
;he scheme devised by city engineers.
Boston Challenge
Boston will make a bid next fall for the
international fishing schooner championship,
it was learned tonight. A vessel to be named
the Mayflower will be built, financed and
manned by Bostonians under plans now well
advanced.
Nivelle Decorated
Secretary Baker decorated General Nivelle,
of the French army, this week with the
Distinguished Service medal, by direction of
the president, for “exceptionally meritorious
and conspicuous service to the United
States.”
General Nivelle later conferred French
decorations on eight navy officers for their
services in connection with the design, con
struction and operation of the Lafayette radio
station at Brest, France. They were: Com
mander Legion of Honor, Rear Admirals Wil
liam Bullard and C. W. Parks; Chevalier,
Commanders S. G. Hooper and E. C. Hickey;
Officer Instruction Publique, Commander
Sherman and Lieutenant Commanders Le-
Clair, Coman aud Baldwin.
Auto Deaths
Deaths from automobile accidents in
America continued to show an increase dur
ing 1919, with a total of 7,969 for the census
bureau registration area, comprising about 80
per cent of the country’s total population, ac
cording to statistics just completed by the
census bureau. The total includes 3,808
deaths in sixty-six of the largei cities of the
country for which statistics were announced
early this month, and which total was not
clearly indicated as representing the aggre
gate for those cities only.
The deaths last year from automobile ac
cidents showed an increase of 444 for 1919
over the total for 1918 in the registration
area. The rate per 100,000 population in
that area has not yet been complete, but the
rate in the cities was placed at 14.1.
National Spree
I Apparently Germany is drinking to
drown her sorrow. With champagne cost
ing seventeen times its pre-war price, 10,-
000,000* bottles were consumed last year
against an average of 6,000,000 before the
.war. All records w r ere broken for betting
also. Between drinking and betting Ger
many spent in one year nearly $350,000,-
000.
Heroism Rewarded
Three officers of the U. S. S. General
George W. GoetLals, who assisted in rescuing
the crew of the United States submarine S-5
last September, when the under-water craft
was disabled off Cape Henlopen, were re
warded with presents from Secretary Daniels
this week.
Captain E. D. Swinson and Second En
gineer Robert A. McWilliams, of the General
Goethals, were presented with binoculars, and
Chief Engineer W. G. Grace received a gold
watch. The presentation was made by Rear
Admiral J. H. Glennon, commandant of the
third naval district, acting for Secretary
Daniels.
Builds Own Casket
Rufus Hollis, eighty-seven, Confeder
ate veterans of Scottsboro, Ala., is too
aged for farm work. Rather than loaf,
he is doing what other people usually
have done for them. He is building his
own casket and shaping his own monu
ment.
Discover Ruins
Discovery of the ruins of a pre-lpstoric vil
lage and cemetery, in which were inany relics
of great value, in the Navajo country in New
Mexico, is announced by the Amewcan Mus
eum of Natural History. The discovery was
made by an exploration party, headed by Earl
H. Morris, which has been conducting excava
tions in the Pueblo community dwelling at
Aztec, New Mexico.
Fragments of polished pottery, glistening
in the sun, led the party “by mere chance,”
to the new discovery, Mr. Morris wrote to
headquarters here. Hundreds of pottery ves
sels of artistic design and scores of ancient
tombs, which revealed many interesting hab
its of living, were unearthed, he said.
“There had been more than twenty dwel
lings in the village,” he wrote, “varying in
size from four to as many as fifty rooms.”
King Distributes Land
Instructions have been given by King Al
fonso for the formation of ar. agricultural
syndicate, the object of which will be the par
celling out of the king’s royal estate at El
Pardo, nine miles west of Madrid, for cultiva
tion under the Auspices of the Catholic
Agrarian federation. The property contains
nearly 2,500 acres and will be divided into
small plots. A plan has been devised which
will permit laborers to acquire the land allot
ted to them.
Cob Pipe Returns
Re-enter the corn cob pipe. Tobacco
salesmen in New York say the relic of
another day is coming back into its own
again. A wave of economy has brought
the discarded favorite of by-gone days
back into popularity with smokers.
I Morgenthau Named
Henry Morgenthau, of New York, former
ambassador to- Turkey, has been selected by
President Wilson to act as the president’s per
sonal representative in mediating between the
Armenians and the Turkish nationalists.
Mr. Morgenthau conferred with Acting Sec
retary Davis at the state department receiv
ing final instructions as to his mission. The
■department, however, has not yet heard from
the League of Nations in response to the presi
dent’s request for further information as to
procedure.
Largest Chrysanthemum
Oescribed as the largest chrysanthemum yet
grown, the “Louisa Puckett,” on exhibition
at a flower show in London, has a circum
ference of thirty inches.
Big Money
A bill for $840,000,000 against the
government fell due Wednesday and at
the same time the treasury collected
$650,000,000 in income and excess prof
its taxes.
About in treasury cer
tificates of indebtedness matured also
and at the same time the semi-annual in
terest on the first Liberty loan and the
Victory Liberty loan, aggregating about
$140,000,000, became payable.
Austria in League
Austria was elected a member of the
League of Nations by the assembly of the
league this vzeek.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1920.
Watching Wall Street Workers
By Frederic J. Haskin
NEW YORK, Dec. 13.—Obtaining em
ployment in Wall Street these days is
about as easy as securing a passport
to Russia, or gaining admission to the Union
League club since the recent Irish episode*
Not that Wall Street has reached the satu
ration point in the matter of employment, as
have so many other districts all of i- sudden.
It is one place where jobs are still numer
ous. But Wall Street does not employ people
in its former casual a-c. even careless man
ner. Instead, it overhauls them thoroughly,
as a horse dealer overhauls a horse before
committing himself to its purchase, and ac
cepts only those who are of robust health,
and impeccable character.
Judging by the nonchalant ease with which
clerks and messengers always seem to be get
ting away with millions of dollars worth of
bonds in this district, you would never imag
ine that Wall Street was at all particular
about whom it employed. But, as we have
said, it is. Nearly every large concern in its
narrow, crooked little streets, nowadays has
its personnel department, which is its first
line of defense against criminals in search
£ jobs. Since the recent explosion, these de
partments have increased rapidly in numbers,
while entrance examinations to the big finan
cial institutions have become so rigid that,
as one employee remarked sarcastically the
other day, only the sons of bank presidents
can be messengers in banks.
The typical Wall Street personnel depart
ment has three important divisions —namely,
the psychological division; the health divi
sion; and the social service division. Per
haps the health division should have been
placed first, since health is the first consid
eration in examining a prospective employee.
The district’s specifications in this regard
are quite as rigid as those of the army.
In order to land a job here, a man’s eyesight
must be good; his hearing perfect; his lungs
and heart and kidneys in good condition; and
above all his teeth must not be defective.
If a man is in otherwise good health, but his
teeth need attention, he is required to have
them repaired before he is taken on the staff.
The same conditions apply to women em
ployes.
The Employe’s Health
The health division of the personnel de
partment usually employs at least two phy
sicians for the work of examining applicants
as well as for the care of permanent em
ployes. One of these doctors is a man and
the other a woman. It is their duty to keep
the permanent staff a top-notch physical ef
ficiency, and to prevent the employment of
persons with incipient tuberculosis or other
chronic diseases. One such division also
teaches hygiene to the firm’s workers, and
advises them as to their personal habits in
diet, dentistry and baths.
When the health division gets through with
him, the prospective employe is dispatched to
the psychological division, where he is given
elaborate tests for determining his mental
and moral grasp of affairs. Sometimes a
man who enters this division believing him
self to be an expert secretary is informed
that his powers lie in the field of salesman
ship, and hence is told that the firm will em
ploy him only as a salesman. According to
one psychologist working for a financial in
stitution employing hundreds of people, as
many young people come to him underrating
their abilities as those who overestimate
them. Occasionally, he has to disillusion a
prospective bank clerk by telling him he
would make a better automobile mechanic
or plumber, but not so often as one might
imagine. The average New Yorker, he says,
is usually pretty accurate in finding his own
particular niche.
Having passed the inquisitions of these
two divisions the applicant must now encoun
ter the equally searching crutiny of the so
ial service division, which wants to know a
host of things. What is his full name; his
mother’s and father’s name; his nationality;
his religion; and political belief, his birth
place; and his chief recreation? Where does
he live-; where has he lived; and where will
he live in the futurie? How many jobs has
he had before, and what and where were
they? How many people are in his family,
and who are they? All of these, and many
more questions are asked. One young man.
who recently obtained an important position
in a bank in the Wall Street district, asserts
that its social service inquisitor even made
him write down the names of all his women
Friends and acquaintances.
This extensive record is then filed in the
eompany ( ’s files, together with a photograph
of the employe, and his list of references
investigated. If these are found to be satis
factory, he is accepted as a permanent acqui
sition to the staff, but this does not mean
that he is exempt from further .examinations
or investigations. The social service division
’.till keeps an eye on him. And so does the
health division. If his work suddenly be
comes irregular in efficiency, he is whisked
up to the medical office for another examina
tion, and if this does not disclose the cause,
he social service division, rushes up to his
neighborhood and Interview his family or
landlady.
Home Life and Efficiency
Experience has shown that home condi
tions have the greatest possible influence on
a man’s efficiency. An extravagant or com
plaining wife can drive a man to strange
acts of crime, which, of course ,is a matter
of history. If the Revolutionary War staff
had only had a social service department Ben
edict Arnold might have been rescued from
an ignominious immortality. But even little
nuisances at home play an important part in
a man’s work. For instance, one social serv
ice worker declares that all the male work
ers on the staff of her company suddenly evi
dence a surprising inefficiency, during the
spring and fall housecleaning seasons, while
one man made a mistake, which would have
cost the firm thirty thousand dollars had it
not been discovered in time, during the pe
riod that his wife was putting up cherries.
Any serious illness’at home, of course, is al-
ways registered by a man’s lack of concentra
tion on his work.
Having proved this curious fact to its own
satisfaction. Wall Street does not confine its
surveillance to new employes, but has recent
ly extended its investigations to include the
home conditions of employes long connected
with it. There are about 10,000 of these em
ployed by over 400 firms. Some of them 3"
gray-haired and stoop-shouldered from long
service, but they are to be investigated and
card-indexed just as thoroughly as the newest
office boy. Most of this work, however, is
not being handled by individual social serv
ice divisions, but by the bureau of investiga
tion of the National Surety company, which
has been engaged for the purpose by the As
sociated, Stock Exchange firms.
An Espionage System
This bureau of investigation has had its
staff of investigators in the field for several
weeks. They are working quietly but fairly,
and are trying to avoid embarrassing anyone.
Their information is obtained from any relia
ble source at hand—from the corner grocer,
the apartment house janitor, the neighbors or
the mailman.
Upon uncovering any suspicious circum
stance, the investigator immediately reports
to headquarters and waits for further or
ders.
Some surprising facts have been brought
to light in this way. For example, in investi
gating the record of an employe of a large
Wall Street firm, not, however, in the stock*
exchange business, the inquirer was informed
by the young man’s landlady that he leftthe
house carrying a satchel around 10 o’clock
DOROTHY DIX TALKS I
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Ideal Mother
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndi
cate, Inc.
* MOTHERS’ CLUB asks me if I will
/A give it my definition of an ideal
x mother.
Well, if I were a baby and could choose
my mother, I would pick out a strong and
healthy mother. I would want a mother
who would start me out in life with a ro
bust body, with steady nerves and with
clean blood, free of any taint of disease, for
I -should choose to be born of a mother who >
had exercise.! as much thought and judg- w
ment and care in selecting my father as she
would in buying a new hat.
I should want a strong and healthy moth
er also, because I should want to be raised
in a quiet, peaceful home, and I couldn’t
hope for that if my mother was a peevish
invalid, with raw nerves, that every little
noise irritated to distraction, and who was
fretful, and fault-finding, and complaining
because she was half sick all the time.
And I should choose a mother who wanted
me, and who did not regard children as one
of the major afflictions of life. I should
want a mother who was more interested in
me than she was in clubs, and who thought
it more fun to play with me than she did to
play bridge. I should pray that I would
get a mother who wouldn’t turn me over to
nursemaids and servants to bring up by
hand, but who would give me her own per
sonal attention.
I should choose a woman who was very w
tender and understanding, for a mother. I
should want a mother who knew that a
child’s soul is the shyest thing on earth, and
who would not try to force my confidence,
or pry into my little secrets, but she would
know just what I meant, and just why I did
things when I blundered out my confession ’
to her in the twilight, or when she tucked
me in bed at night.
I should want her to be the kind of
woman who knows things by the grace of
God, without being told, and that no mat
ter how much I stumbled and fell, she would
know why, and believe in me to the last.
And I should want my mother’s breast
to be very soft for me to cry out my childish
heart upqn, when I was little and hurt my
self, and her arms to be a refuge to me, to
which I could alw..ys turn when I was big
and the world buffeted and beat me.
I should want my mother to be a good
natured woman, one who always laughed
with you, and nbt at you. I should like to
be reared in a home that was bright and
gay, where people made merry over mis
adventures, and turned deprivations and
sacrifices into jokes.
I should like to have a mother who en
couraged every form of innocent enjoyment,
and who could enter into the spirit of things,
the sort of a mother who is never too busy
to put up a lunch for a boy who Is going
•fishing, or to add a new frill to a girl’s
dancing frock. I should like to come into
a cheerful home, where the mother’s smile
made sunshine, no matter what cloud of
adversity darkened the balance of the world.
I should like to have a mother with a
funnybone, and from whom I inherited a
funnybone myself. For she would teach me
not to take myself too seriously, or to grow
morbid, and sour, and grumpy and disgrun
tled There are so many things in life over
which one must either laugh of cry, and ir
is only those who can laugh whom Fate can
never down.
I should want a mother who was Intelli
gent, a mother who read and who kept up j
with the times, and who was always a fasci
nating and interesting companion. I should
want a mother who would teach me to read,
and guide my footsteps down the flowery
path of literature, and, if I could have frost
ing on my cake, I should wish my mother to
be a musician, so that in the evenings there
would not only be a group around the drop
light, but also around the piano.
I’d hate to belong to one of those families
where the home is so dull that nobody stays
in it a minute more than they can help, and
w'here everybody has to go to the movies or
the theater, or a cabaret to spend a pleasant
evening.
I should wish to be the child of an ambi
tious mother. I should wish for a mother
—one of those women who set some high ’
goal Before their children’s eyes, and who
make them feel that they had better die than
not reach it. I should like a mother who
was like a spear in my side, urging me on
and on to something letter and higher, some
worth-while achievement.
I should pray the gods to save me from
being the child of one of the mothers who
are content to have their children clods, if *
only they remain near them, who will balk
a girl’s ambition so that she may stay at
home and nurse them, or block the boy’s ,
career because they cannot bear to have him
go away from home.
I should want a mother who had some
thing of the Spartan in her. A mother who
had the courage to see my faults and cor
rect them, a mother who had the strength
to hold me to my duty when I faltered in It,
and who did not shrink from making me do
the hard thing when it was the right thing.
I would want a mother who would teach me !
in my youth habits of industry and thrift,
who would inculcate in me the gospel of
efficiency, for thus would she insure my suc
cess and prosperity in the world.
I should wish to have a mother who loved
me, not blindly, but with seeing eyes; a
mother who would perceive my deficiencies
and help me strengthen the weak places; a
mother who would help me fight my tem- u
per if I were possessed of such a devil, who ’
would teach me diplomacy if I were tactless,
who would inspire me to effort If I were a
shirker, and shame me into sticking If I were
a quitter.
A strong woman—a woman strong of 4
body, strong of hdart, strong of brain, strong *
of spirit. These are the qualities that I
should ask in my mother if I were a baby
to whom the gods gave the privilege of pick
ing out my ideal mother.
every evening, and did not return until one /
or two o’clock in the morning. The young
man was considered a model employe, 'and
his former employers had testified to his
honesty and efficiency. For a week or two
the matter remained a baffling mystery, at
the end of which time the young man’s em
ployer suggested that it be dropped, as he
was sure it was unimportant. But in the
meantime the bureau had placed a detective
on the young man’s trail, who followed him .
in his nocturnal wanderings and brought to /'
light the amazing fact that they were de
voted to burglaring. He was caught in the
act, and confessed quite coolly, explaining
that his Wall Street job was held merely as
a blind.
“We do not expect thefts and embezzle
ments to cease entirely because of this work,”
says the National Surety company, “but we
do expect to protect ourselves as far as pos
sible. Wherever there is room for suspi- /
cion our bureau of investigation will use
every means to get the facts, but we know
before we start that the great majority of
Wall Street employes are honest people.
“We know, too, that human nature is a
thing that cannot be reduced to mathemat
ics or filed away for reference. But we do
want to know how these people live at home, J
where they spend their recreation hours, and W
something of their habits generally, for It
not only has a bearing on their honesty, r
but on their efficiency as employe*,”